Heavenly Hosts
by WitchGirl
Summary: Old friends remember people they used to know.


Heavenly Hosts  
  
Summary: Old friends remember people they used to know.  
Disclaimer: Sara Malucci I mentioned in another fic, though I brought her into this one. You need not read the other fic to understand, I just added her in this as well. All familiar characters aren't mine!  
  
A/N: I wanted to add in more thoughts about other characters (IE, Susan, Abby, Elizabeth, Peter, Doug) but it was slightly difficult for some reason, don't ask why. Maybe it's because I stayed up to one AM writing this, but...  
  
Carter laughed as he took a sip of his drink.  
"Great story, Anna, great!" he grinned, "Glad you came to visit!"  
"How could I stay away?" Anna asked him, "Especially at Christmas! I have to tell you, I miss good old County General!"  
"Why don't you come back, then?" Elizabeth asked. Mark, who nodded in agreement, putting his arm around her. But Anna shook her head.  
"I have things back in Philadelphia... I'm sorry," she sounded truly regretful.  
"Too bad. Really. You seem like a great girl. I bet you'd be great to work with," Abby smiled.  
"Thank you," Anna said with gratitude.  
"Too bad Doug and Carol couldn't make it," Mark said.  
"Susan said she'd be here," Kerry put in, dully. As if on cue, the door opened, and, snowy and bundled up, Susan Lewis stepped in.  
"Hey guys, sorry I'm late!" she grinned.  
"Susan, have a seat!" Mark greeted her, gesturing to a comfy armchair.  
"Nice place you got here," she said, looking around.  
"One of Carter's friends," Luka told her and introduced himself and the others Susan didn't know.  
"This is great! All of us, the new, the old! Well, except for Doug and Carol," Peter said.  
"Not all of us," Carter whispered, watching the specks of white dot the black sky as they fluttered to the ground. He stood up and walked to the window.  
"John... Are you alright?" Jing-Mei asked, looking at him, worriedly.  
"I'm fine," he told her, still facing the window, "Keep going."  
"Carter, if this is about-" Kerry started.  
"Don't worry. Hey Dave, tell them about that senile old man who thought he was Theodore Roosevelt," he said, tonelessly, still not facing them. But Dave didn't say a word.  
"What's up with Carter?" Anna asked.  
"He's lost a lot in his life, Anna," Kerry whispered.  
"Anyway, yeah, that guy..." Dave started slowly, eyes still on Carter, "He was pretty funny. He kept saying 'I am the president of the United States of America!' and things like that..." his speed picked up as he was engulfed by the memory and others were drawn into the story with him. 'Tell them about Valentine's Day 2000, Elizabeth. How was it for you?' he could have asked them. Or 'Hey Peter, did you ever tell them about Dennis?' But it was a happy time to be filled with happy stories. The new friends didn't want to hear about Dennis Gant or Carol's attempted suicide and the old friends could care less about the stabbing or Valentine's Day. He looked at all the bright lights decorating the large houses. He saw a Santa Clause on a roof in a sleigh with only seven reindeer.  
"One reindeer short," he sighed. He often felt he was one reindeer short. His life was missing something. There was a whole in him. He knew what would fill it. Everyone he'd lost, either to death or to something else. Bobby, Dennis, Lucy, Doug, Carol, Anna... They could fill it. At least Doug, Carol, and Anna were only a phone call away. The others were father away than he wanted to admit.  
  
The night went on and Carter stayed by the window. Dave sighed. People laughed at his jokes and he listened to tales about Doug, Carol, Anna, Maggie, Susan, and others that once worked at the ER.  
"But Lucy had never put in an IV before and didn't know how!" Elizabeth explained, "And Carter- Oh, that was fun!" she sighed. Sometimes, Dave tuned in and out of the conversation, thinking about other things. He wondered what his mother would be doing right now if she could move. He looked down at his feet, thinking about her down at Mercy laying in a hospital bed and shivered. He must have missed a joke because everyone laughed. When they noticed he was not laughing, they knew something was up.  
"Dave, you OK?" Abby asked.  
"Huh? Fine," he grinned, though inside, he was screaming. But his answer seemed to satisfy him just as Carter's suggestion of Dave's story had satisfied the others. Dave knew they cared. But he also knew it was Christmas and they really didn't want to be burdened with other's problems.  
He thought he might visit his mother in the morning, to say hi to her. He couldn't see it, he just couldn't. She was lying there in a coma when Dave was a boy she had played with him and planted lilacs in her garden so happily.  
He wondered how his brother was doing. His brother, Chris, had run away when Dave was just a teenager and they never found him again. Dave knew he was alive. He had been sent a post card from Bermuda signed 'a friend.' He knew it was from Chris, though, because only Chris did the little doodles at the bottom of the card.  
These weren't the only family members he remembered. He remembered his sister, how she had been beaten to death by her father's cruel hand. It had been why Chris ran away and why his mother finally worked up the nerve to divorce him. Ah, poor Sara in a cold grave yard all alone. He went to her sometimes and brought her nice things. When he was younger, he had brought her a teddy bear. He thought it was still there, buried under snow and dirt.  
But Dave often wondered about his father the most. The man he was related to by pure accident. After the divorce, Dave had never seen him again. And he was glad for that. He hoped he never had to see his father again. He sat backed and listened to the conversation, which had now turned to the time Abby had given the wrong relative the wrong diagnosis.  
"She asked me how he was and I thought she was my patient's mother! I told her he was dying, which was true, and she was so shocked!" Abby laughed, "She couldn't understand it! You see, her husband, Dr. Carter's patient, had fainted from dehydration! So when I told her he was dying- Oh it's funny now, but it wasn't then for her!" Dave laughed and stayed with the conversation.  
  
Adding bits and pieces in to Elizabeth's story, Mark smiled. He watched his wife explain the interesting happening to the assembled people. The way she smiled when she said things and the sparkle in her eye reminded Mark how much he loved her.  
"Mark and I never planned for our parents to like each other that much, they just sort of... did!" Elizabeth shrugged. Suddenly, the conversation turned to why it didn't work out for their parents. Their was silence and Elizabeth informed them that Mark's father had suffered from Lung Cancer and had passed away. There was a moment of silence when Peter changed the subject. But it got Mark thinking about his father. He wished he could have done more to help him. But he knew he couldn't have done anything. He made his father as comfortable as possible. There was nothing he could do. He tuned back into the conversation, which had turned to Mark and Elizabeth's wedding.  
  
"Hark the Harold Angels sing..." Carol hummed along to the music as she watched Doug place the star upon the tree.  
"There!" he declared, climbing down, "How do you think that looks?"  
"Perfect!" Carol answered, truthfully, "Never have I seen a better tree."  
"How are the girls?"  
"Asleep at last," she sighed, slumping into an armchair, "It feels so good to be with you again!"  
"I must agree," Doug kissed her softly. Carol sighed. For some reason, she thought of Luka. She thought of Carter and Kerry and Mark and Elizabeth. She thought of all the friends she left back in Chicago just to be with Doug. But she felt it was worth it. She also thought of the friends that had left her behind. Even Doug had left her for a time. Carol remembered she had left soon after Lucy's passing and it must have been difficult taking another friend gone. She never really told them what was going on or why she was leaving. She remembered the look on Mark's face when she told him.  
  
"Mark, I gotta go, tell Kerry I won't be in tomorrow. Okay?"  
"Twins okay?"  
"I'm gonna drop them off at mom's"  
"What?"  
"I'll call you from the plane."   
"Plane?"  
  
"Mommy," a small four-year-old girl stood at the top of the stairs. Carol's eyes widened.  
"Tess, honey!" she declared, drawing out of her flashback. Racing up the stairs to her daughter, she kneeled down to her level, "You should be in bed! Or Santa won't come!"  
"I can't sleep!" she complained, pitifully. Carol smiled.  
"Come on, honey, I'll get you some water but then you have to go off to bed!" Tess nodded as her mother took her by the hand, gave her a glass of water, and scooted her off to bed.  
"What was wrong?" Doug asked when Carol came back down stairs.  
"Couldn't sleep," Carol answered, "We better get these gifts wrapped!"  
"You OK?" Doug asked as Carol tied a bow to a parcel.  
"Uh huh!" Carol smiled, forgetting her memories for that period and living in the present. The present, where she had a loving husband and two beautiful girls. And the Christmas carols played softly in the background.  
  
"Silent night, holy night  
Shepherds quake at the sight  
Glories stream from heaven above  
Heavenly hosts sing 'Alleluia'  
Christ the Savior, is born  
Christ the Savior, is born..."  
  
She tossed her head of blond hair back as she laughed.  
"You think that was bad?" she asked, "Did you see the time Carter got his new beard stuck to that glue guy?"  
"Didn't Corday get stuck too?" an African-American woman asked.  
"Sure, but I didn't have to cut off her beard!" they all laughed.  
"Ah, the good days! I miss the ER!" another African-American man nearby sighed.  
"Why'd you commit suicide anyway?" the blond asked.  
"I never told you it was suicide..." he grinned. The other woman rolled her eyes.  
"Not that story again!" she complained, "Dennis will never tell us what really happened!"  
"I don't care, really," the blond shrugged, "It makes no difference to me. I was just curious."  
"There's one thing about Carter, though," the other woman commented, "Is he is so sweet. He always feels guilty about the people he knew who died."  
"That's for sure!" the blond commented.  
"You sound glad about that, Lucy," Dennis looked at her, quizzically.  
"Did you see the way he treated me?"  
"You were his first student, he didn't know what to do with you! And, no offence, but you do get kind of annoying," Dennis shrugged, "And pitiful."  
"This coming from a suicide victim," she rolled her eyes.  
"I never said suicide!"  
"Well obviously it was, wasn't it?" Lucy snapped.  
"Hush, you two! I won't handle fighting!"  
"Ah, Jeanie, the reasonable one!" Dennis sighed, "What do you make about Lucy's actions down there?"  
"What do you mean?" Lucy demanded.  
"Dr. Carter, how do you put in an IV? Dr. Carter, I never did well in school because my teachers said I was dumb so don't blame me for my stupid mistakes! Dr. Carter, don't run away from me! I'm your little sheep that follows you around!" Dennis put on a high voice.  
"Shut up, idiot! Carter didn't even want to spend time with you!"  
"Like he wanted to spend time with his dumb blond student?"  
"I said stop!" Jeanie ordered, angrily. The two silenced themselves, "Dennis, I would expect more from you! Do you know how much guilt you caused Carter and Peter when you died? And you, Lucy! When you were stabbed! How do you think Carter felt when he saw you bleeding on the floor?"  
"You were murdered?" Dennis asked, impressed.  
"Yeah, where were you?"  
"Ally McBeal was probably on," Dennis shrugged, "Interesting. I love murder victims. Their so... I don't know. They have that 'back off, I was murdered' thing about them," he saw Jeanie and added, "I like AIDS victims, too, you know. They're interesting."  
"Do they even know you died?" Lucy asked Jeanie, cautiously.  
"Of course they know!" Jeanie snapped.  
"I was just asking. You know, since you left before... well, yeah."  
"What are you folks talking about?"  
"Ah, Mr. Greene!" Dennis exclaimed, "Where's your wife?"  
"Off somewhere," he answered.  
"We're pleasently checking up on our friends," Lucy waved her hand and an image appeared in it, rippling, as if shown through a pool of water. In it was the small party with Carter by the window and the rest reminiscing.  
"Look at Mark and Elizabeth," David Greene commented, "Don't they look wonderful together?"  
"Perfect," Dennis sighed and leaned in to Lucy, "That's all he talks about, Mark, Mark, Mark!"  
"What, you don't like Mark?" Lucy asked.  
"I like Mark fine," Dennis defended.  
"Why can't you two ever get along?" Jeanie demanded, overhearing them. A young girl came, with one arm around a dirty teddy bear, her fine black hair neatly pulled into a small pony tail tied with a green ribbon to match her always large green eyes.  
"Davie!" she declared, running over to the window to the other world, "I knew you'd be OK, little brother!"  
"Who's the kid?" Dennis asked.  
"Sara Lynn Malucci," Lucy whispered back, "Dave's older sister. Beaten to death."  
"Oh..." Dennis sighed, looking at the child, "Poor gal."  
And so, they stood, the five angels, watching their friends. Five angels, who had never met before in life, did so in death, because of their friends. And the others who weren't with them at that moment, were down there, thinking of the angels just like the angels thought of them.  
Lucy smiled as Carter's brow furrowed and he turned from the window he had been facing and seemed to look Lucy straight in the eyes.   
Dennis almost felt a tear as he heard Peter whisper "I'm sorry, Dennis."  
Jeanie noticed Kerry was looking elsewhere from the others and took out a small necklace Jeanie had given Kerry once. Kerry smiled and put it on.  
Sara blew a kiss to her brother, who looked up and sighed "Remember Sara, Chris, remember her like I do."  
David watched lovingly as he saw Mark kiss Elizabeth gently.  
"There was only one thing that was wrong about our wedding," Mark told her.  
"The fact you were late?"  
"OK, two things wrong."  
"What?"  
"I wished my Dad could have seen us," Mark sighed. Out of all the angels, David was the only one to speak back.  
"I was, son, I was."  



End file.
